Divided Loyalty, Demonic Love
by c2t2
Summary: One tiny difference in Kagome throws the entire story of Inuyasha into a tailspin, the outcome vastly changed.
1. To Victory

Title: Divided Loyalty, Demonic Love

Title: Divided Loyalty, Demonic Love  
Author: c2t2  
Part: 1/(?)  
Warnings: None yet  
Universe: _Not_ AU, even though it looks like it at first  
Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi created these characters and this world. I am merely borrowing them without permission or monetary gain.  
Chapter Summary: Several years after the well closes with Kagome trapped on the wrong side, she finally seems to be getting on with her life. However, a few details don't quite fit, and it seems there's more going on than meets the eye…

Chapter 1 – To Victory

Kagome gasped desperately for air. Her legs felt like they were filled with broken glass and liquid acid, her lungs burned and her heart pounded in the oxygen-depleted air as sweat poured down her body in shining rivulets. She could no longer tell if she was running or climbing; it was usually a combination of the two. There had been no sign of civilization for miles; not a trail, building, or piece of trash visible until this very moment. Lightweight navigation materials felt like thousands of pounds, her water at least having run out long before. And finally, there it was; she was so close… she could really make it…

Kagome Higurashi stumbled across the finish line to a chorus of cheers from her friends who had arrived hours earlier to wait for her at the finish line. She had just broken the course record in off-trail extreme running.

Not paying attention to the people buzzing excitedly around her, Kagome found herself wrapped in a foil-blanket and handed something wonderfully cool to drink as she tried to catch her breath. She had actually done it! Not one single other competitor in the race was in sight, and they wouldn't be for some minutes yet. Walking aimlessly to prevent her legs from seizing up, Kagome tried to smile at her friends while the world was blurring and darkening around her. She was blacking out, had she pushed too hard? She heard her time announced to the small, enthusiastic crowd. Her thoughts were jagged, fragmented shards that had once been a mind.

Slow. She was too slow. She KNEW she was faster than this. If _they_ were here, even without any aid, they would have finished in a quarter of the time! Once, she could almost… Why couldn't she reclaim that ability, that exhilarating speed and excitement, of the days of unblemished landscape quickly eaten away beneath her feet, and the nights of…

Kagome shook her head violently, trying to stifle her thoughts and sending glittering beads of sweat flying through the air to fall to the earth around her. The sudden pain in her chest having little to do with exertion from the race she had just won.

She would not think about that. Not today.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

After collecting the modest prize money, Kagome headed back to the city with her friends, where they parted ways. Her friends had all either gone on to university or gotten married and settled down, but Kagome hadn't even finished high school. She was amazed she had managed to stay in school as long as she did, but eventually she couldn't keep up, and she'd had to choose: save the world… or go to school.

It wasn't much of a choice really.

She made do, somehow. She won modest fame and a little money through racing, and a little more money from occasional sponsors. Kagome was also her district's leading archery champion, and she worked whenever she could as a shrine-maiden-for-hire. Not that there was much business. Mikos in this era weren't called on to work as healers or exorcise demons very often, if ever. She mainly did festivals, celebrations, and holiday rituals. Traditional dances and such were still in demand. She took a couple of night classes and sometime next year she should finish her high school education, although what she was going to do with it was anyone's guess. For now she mostly helped run the shrine and took care of her increasingly-senile grandfather. Her dog and running partner, Ash, was her best friend and the only thing that could always lift her spirits. The snowy Akita had broken her perilous downward spiral after her final journey through the well. He had literally saved her life... in more ways than one.

Her family pretended not to notice when she slipped and called him by the wrong name.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome sighed in contentment. A book balanced on her knees, its pages dappled with the occasional spots of sunlight piercing Goshinboku's shade; her dog draped across her feet; the warm summer breeze trailing sensuous fingers through her hair as she sat curled into the roots of the tree. _Her_ tree. Their tree.

Once, there had been a scar on the side of Goshinboku directly above where she now sat. That scar had vanished, but the jewel-scar on her side, in her flesh, still remained.

Kagome ignored the faint ringing of the phone, drifting in and out of dreams of silver hair and of flying at speeds faster than the wind itself.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Despite Ash and her relatively normal life, Kagome was lonely. Her friends had their own, separate, lives of course, but more than that, they had been cool and distant to her for years now. They still hadn't forgiven her, and she didn't really blame them, but they wouldn't believe her if she told them…

It had been gradual. The changes so slow that, with the chaos of life on the other side of Time, Kagome hadn't noticed until it was far, far too late.

Gradually, her friends came around less and less, and she hadn't noticed. They slowly ceased inquiring about her health, their remaining questions acquiring a cool, sarcastic undercurrent. They started doing things without bothering to invite her, and she _still_ didn't notice. She should have known she couldn't keep the farce up forever. Her friends would get suspicious eventually.

She didn't know when it started, but when she was supposedly sick, "hospitalized" for weeks on end, her friends were unable to visit due to increasingly flimsy excuses dreamed up by her grandfather. Her apparent exhaustion and anxiety whenever she returned for a few days helped support her story for awhile, but eventually it became too obvious.

Kagome wasn't sick.

Her friends couldn't help but notice. Graceful, smooth muscle formed under the skin of her legs, arms, and body. Her skin darkened wherever her clothing exposed it to the sun. Calluses formed on her hands and fingers from her bow and the other miscellany of an outdoor life. At some point, she had ceased looking like the Kagome everyone knew, and eventually she got to a point where _no one_ who saw her would believe that she was an ordinary city girl, much less a sickly one.

Her friends weren't entirely stupid. Every time she returned from a prolonged "illness," Kagome appeared even stronger, more fit, and practically glowing with health than before. The more she was "sick," the stronger and healthier she got. Her trips into the past had transformed her and caused her to bloom from an ordinary Tokyo schoolgirl into an extraordinary woman, powerful and capable.

Kagome had changed inside as well. Her trials and experiences had matured her, and she had grown past her friends, so that they felt like strangers, like children whenever she was with them. And they in turn regarded her with suspicion. No one with even one fraction of her horrible diseases had ever gone straight from critical condition in the hospital to breaking mountain, trail, and off-road marathon records, much less simultaneously winning archery tournaments and acquiring a sudden expertise with herbs and an uncanny ability with canines, with her almost unnatural love for Ash.

They had only seen it from the outside. When Kagome suddenly stopped 'getting sick' she immediately seemed to slide into a deep despair, frightening everyone who knew her. Until her brother discovered a half-starved white puppy nestled into the roots of Goshinboku. The only thing her friends knew was that Kagome suddenly came back to life, unaware that her family was now even more worried than before.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

"Come on Kagome, we don't want to hear your thousand excuses. We are going to celebrate one way or the other, and since we know you like outdoor hiking stuff, this is how we are going to do it!" Eri said, matter-of-factly. The others nodded.

Finally, her friends had forgiven her, and right now, she almost wished they hadn't. They were currently trying to talk her into a weekend getaway at a resort so remote that they would have to travel through the wildest parts of the mountains to reach it. It was supposed to be very zen, despite being the only sign of the modern world, including electricity and running water, for miles around.

"Psh, you guys just want to use my car for the trip," Kagome wisely assumed, citing the First Rule of Wilderness Adventure: Use Someone Else's Vehicle. Kagome was not risking her family's car just so her friends could have a wilderness retreat without risking _their_ families' cars.

"Nope!" Ayumi said, shocking Kagome, "My cousin works at a car rental place, and she can get us a car for almost free! A little abused, but…"

"Have you asked her yet?"

"Yes! And she said yes, but it'll be a major piece of junk. As long as it goes, right? Are you in, Kagome? And before you ask, yes your dog can come!"

"Well, I suppose…"

The others gave a collective squeal of glee and before she knew it, Kagome was in the midst of planning the getaway the coming weekend. Ash flattened his ears at the high-pitched noises and slunk away under the bed.

Her friends had insisted on the most secluded, innermost reaches of the mountains they could find. She knew that in their route the "roads" would be more accurately described as "game trails." And even some of the i_better/i_ roads would have sheer drops and no guardrails!

_Well, what's a little danger to the one and only Higurashi Kagome? Kagome eats, sleeps, and breathes mortal peril! … or has in the past._

Or something.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It seemed to Kagome as if she had barely blinked and the weekend was upon her. Dragging out the old yellow backpack sent horrible pangs of nostalgia through her heart. The familiarity of the items she was packing was just as bad.

"Well," she grumbled in the general direction of Ash, who was half-sleeping on her bed, "at least I won't forget anything really important, right? What would I need in the middle of nowhere in the modern era that I wouldn't in the Sengoku Jidai?" Her only answer was the flick of one fluffy ear.

Another half-hour of packing and she finally got around to adding treats for the road, which perked Ash's interest.

"Aargh!" She lunged and just missed as Ash grabbed the freshly packed doggy treats in his mouth and gleefully danced out of the room

"_Yashaaaa_!" Kagome roared as she sprinted to her door as Ash's tail disappeared through it. "You bring that back right now!" The white dog turned at the end of the hall and looked over his shoulder, eyes laughing at her. "Ooh!" _you asked for it…_ "Osuwari!"

The Akita flinched, as if expecting a blow, but then reluctantly sat down as Kagome stormed up and snatched the offending item out of his mouth. "Dumb dog…" she muttered, only a fraction as annoyed as she was acting, stooping briefly to scratch behind his ears.

"Kagome…"

Kagome froze, instantly immersed in guilt and shame. She looked up through her bangs, feeling a sharp pang followed by another wash of shame when she saw her mother standing at the top of the stairs, the older woman's pale face turned to the wall, unable to even look at her.

"I made onigiri for you and your friends. I hope you girls have fun." Her mother's smile was forced as her worry lines suddenly seemed to deepen.

"Thank you, Mama," Kagome stammered. "Come on… Ash," she mumbled, urging the silver-white Akita back to her room. The contrast of the name that passed her lips from a moment ago was painfully obvious, and she could swear she saw her mother suppress a cringe.

Kagome closed the door to her room and sank to the floor with her back to the solid barrier between her and the rest of the house. "I'm sorry Mama," she whispered, barely loud enough for even Ash to hear.

Her mother thought she was deluded, insane, warped with grief. Every time Kagome slipped into saying the more-familiar name, she had to endure seeing the fresh pain in her mother's eyes.

"I'm not crazy, Mama. I'm not… you just wouldn't understand."

TBC

Author Notes:

(1) The research and notes for the fic have gotten lengthy. Rather than waste space here, the notes for each chapter (along with review responses, omakes, and cut-scenes) will be posted at squizbee (dot) livejournal (dot) com to peruse or ignore at your leisure. The link is also on my bio.

(2) I've had this fic started for a LONG time, and after not one but three separate computers randomly exploding, on top of losing internet access over and over again… I seem to be delay-prone. A common affliction, I hear, but annoying nonetheless, since it means that updates will be… sparse.

(3) Any good betas care to help me out? I don't need much proofreading, but a 'there's an enormous plot hole here,' 'this part is boring,' and 'that sentence sounds stupid' kind of beta would significantly speed up my update schedule.

(4) I have promised to never beg or threaten for reviews, but anyone who generously provides feedback will have my unending gratitude. If you are going to review ANY of my stories, please make it this one.


	2. In Catastrophe

Divided Loyalty, Demonic Love

By c2t2  
Part: 2/(?)  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha; but I DO have a big white dog with fluffy ears, and I tweak them _all the time_. Korisu (a.k.a cannon fodder) belongs to me… what's left of her, anyway.  
Chapter Summary: The girls' Zen getaway turns into the vacation from hell.  
Warning(s): Abrupt changes of mood may lead to whiplash.  
ANs: Apologies for the delay. The past few months have included my moving across the country, a lengthy hospital stay, and the temporary loss of _yet another computer_.

As a humor specialist, I was experimenting with action/suspense sequences in this chapter. But old habits die hard, and a certain amount of my old genre managed to sneak in.

Please enjoy!

Chapter 2: In Catastrophe

_500 years in the past…_

Under Goshinboku, Inuyasha's nearly-identical scent was lost to her human senses.

Kagome tried to ignore the bone-deep cold as the leafy boughs above snared any heat from the sickly beams of sunlight. Brief warmth replaced the now-perpetual cold as the enchanted haori was shed from his body and gently wrapped around her shivering, rail-thin form.

"What did you want to talk about out here?" her voice was hoarse as she resisted the urge to cough. But recently, it always was.

The emotions shifting through his golden eyes were too numerous to name.

Inuyasha shifted his gaze to something behind her. Although he was absolutely silent, she could feel the presence at her back. They were _both_ here, it seemed.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha whispered, and he briefly pressed a soft kiss to her lips as she closed her eyes to savor the moment. When he drew back, she saw grief in the lines of his face and swirling through those expressive eyes.

She knew that they grieved. But now, even though it had been far too short, here, in the end, she was happy.

"Kagome," he pulled out of their embrace, anguish roughening his voice, "_Live_."

And then he tore her world apart.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_Present day…_

The honk of an automobile horn startled Kagome out of her memory and drew an enormous yawn from Ash. She hastily blinked away the pooling tears and thrust the garment in her hands back into its box and took it along, unable to leave it behind. Ash sleepily climbed to his feet and padded after her as she hoisted the heavy pack on her shoulders.

SQUANK! SQUAAANK!

Was _that_ what they were going to try to drive into the mountains? With extreme reluctance, Kagome eased out the front door, coming perilously close to walking to the well before adjusting her trajectory and forcing herself down the shrine steps to the vaguely car-shaped pile of rust waiting below.

SQUANK!

That was the most annoying car horn Kagome had ever heard.

OOOOOGA-OOOOGA!

And apparently it could make more than one sound. Joy.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ayumi's cousin was insane.

Her name was Korisu. She took corners on two wheels, ran stoplights, (SQUANK!) and nearly played chicken with a wide-load semi (OOOOGA!). All while working the obnoxious horn more or less like a clutch. That was before she even entered the mountains.

Zen simplicity had apparently been thrown out the window, as the car was stuffed to bursting with anything and everything the other girls thought they might need over the weekend. Kagome would not have been surprised to find the clichéd kitchen sink when they unloaded at the resort. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised to find the cliché _itself_ hidden in the trunk. Kagome distracted herself for a minute trying to imagine what a cliché would look like. Probably shiny.

Anything, anything to distract herself from the car… teetering on the very edge of a sheer cliff, on a crumbling road slick from several days of rain. Kagome realized she was giggling slightly hysterically. Ayumi was crying, and Korisu was assuring her that she was 'practically a professional driver'. Kagome hurriedly nudged Ayumi and whispered that Korisu, trying to calm Ayumi, kept taking her eyes off the shameful excuse for a road.

Ayumi stopped crying. From her downturned face only Kagome and Yuka on either side of her could see the light of grim desperation that allowed for such a feat of willpower. Eri was white-faced, white-knuckled, and silent in the front seat, following the map. Ash whimpered and tried to crawl from the floor into Kagome's lap like he was still a tiny puppy.

"Okay, after this pass, our destination should be this next peak." Eri was the most iron-willed of the other girls, since no one knew of Kagome's experiences, and she didn't offer to trade places. Road maps confused her anyway.

Oh god, they were all going to _die_.

"We're through the last pass, now just down the other side and up toward that peak…" Eri's voice was unnaturally steady as Korisu gunned the engine and sped down the twisting slope. (SQUAAAANK!)

Kagome didn't particularly want to die, so she couldn't help herself, "Careful, it's been raining!"

"So you're afraid we'll get stuck in the mud? Isn't that a reason to go fast anyway?" Korisu briefly flashed a manic grin back at Kagome revealing cigarette-stained teeth and eyes that were slightly too glassy which heightened Kagome's unease. In another situation, Korisu would be … interesting. But right now Kagome just wanted to tear the girl's wavy hair out.

Korisu was still turned to look at the back seat when the girls all felt a sickening lurch. The car began to slide… and then to skid.

The ancient, battered vehicle spun out of control on the wet stone slick from rain. Every girl in the car shrieked at the top of her lungs and Ash howled as they barreled forward toward another sharp curve in the road, which appeared to drop off into a bottomless abyss.

Skidding sideways, the car slid at an angle toward the edge, gritty sand scraping futilely beneath the tires, and just before giving up all hope, there was a jarring crunch and they shuddered to a halt. Kagome peeked out between her fingers and saw a dizzying drop below her. After a panicked moment, she realized that there was a smallish, skeletal sapling that they had (understandably) failed to notice growing from the six inches of space between "Road" and "Abyss." They had slid into it and knocked it loose. One end was presumably under the car, the other was caught in a fork of a pine that had been hidden by the edge of the road. Due to the angle, both of the passenger-side doors opened on the road, although the front one just barely. The driver's side was suspended over god knew what.

"Phew! Thank kami-sama the tree was there, or we would be at the bottom of that thing," Korisu said almost cheerfully. She cut the engine, and then in the silence…

_Creak._

…

"Oh. My. God. EverybodyGetOutRightNow!" she shrieked.

"Yasha!" Kagome lapsed while calling his name, and followed it with a sharp gesture. Ash, not needing to be told twice, quickly leapt over the girls and out the open window. Yuka quickly opened the door and followed. Ayumi was panicking, staring blankly as Kagome frantically unbuckled the poor girl and shoved her toward the door, calling Ash, who, showing intelligence almost beyond canine, clamped his jaws around Ayumi's jacket when Kagome opened the door and helped drag the girl out of the car, Kagome hot on her heels.

The back seat safely evacuated, Kagome realized Eri, who had braved the most terrifying views to navigate all through the trip, had reached her limit, and was shaking too hard to unbuckle herself. The car was now jolting from the slow collapse of the tree keeping the front end suspended. Apparently, even though the large sapling wasn't about to break, the split pine it rested on was slowly tearing out of the rotten stone by the roots. Korisu reached over to the passenger side, nearest to the cliff and unbuckled Eri, opening the door and shoving her out, where Kagome barely kept the girl from staggering over the edge. At that moment the tree gave its most ominous groan yet, and Kagome realized their mistake.

The weight of the car had been distributed evenly, but now the weight not in the trunk was in the corner of the car furthest from safety.

Korisu met the others' eyes, and they all realized at the same moment that she wasn't going to make it. The car tipped over the cliff; the last thing they saw before the drop was her expression of shock shading rapidly to terror.

In the silent eternity watching the car fall, leisurely spinning in the air, reality ceased to exist for those few endless moments. Then the rear bumper touched the ground. The car seemed to stand perfectly still for a single moment… then it crumpled like an accordion, windshield facing the sky.

It had landed not too far below, on the very road they had been driving. After another sharp switchback, they would probably have been driving over it right then, were it not for this.

The junior-high friends followed Kagome's lead as she rushed down the road and back to the crash site to try and figure out how to get Korisu out of the wreckage without slashing her to ribbons on broken glass.

Kagome's mind was working at hyperspeed as she carefully picked her way toward the driver's side door. What would her friends from the Sengoku Jidai do? Miroku would grope all her friends, which probably wouldn't help right now. Inuyasha would use his claws and superhuman strength to tear a hole in the metal roof of the car… well, that wasn't happening. But what if it turned out Korisu couldn't be moved? Then he would use his superhuman powers to sniff out the nearest occupied residence and bring back help…

Well, they lacked youkai powers to find help in the most expedient way possible, but they had the next closest thing: a world-class endurance runner with honed navigational skills, and Ash's sense of smell. Since the others seemed uninjured and she could hear some kind of trickling water nearby…

After taking quick inventory: sweatshirt, mostly-full water bottle in sweatshirt pocket, serviceable shoes, still some time until sunset… Kagome nodded sharply. "I'm going to find help, so don't move," she ordered her friends, "stay together no matter what, and see if there's anything you can salvage from the wreck without cutting yourselves up. If Korisu wakes up and calls out, let her know that help is on the way." With that, Kagome took off down the road they'd been following, Ash trotting at her heels. She knew there was absolutely nothing for an hour's suicidally-fast drive in the other direction. Now she would just hope to find a residence, or an emergency phone, or…

There came another, even more ominous groaning. This was no creak of falling trees, it seemed to come from the mountain itself. For a split second there was a sound like a thousand muffled explosions. Then, unceremoniously, the road caved in.

The mountain collapsed beneath their feet. Kagome watched in horror as her friends, finding themselves suddenly weightless, disappeared from sight. There was an ear-rending crunch, and a cloud of dust bloomed so thick Kagome couldn't see her friends at all for a minute, only hear their coughing. When the dust cleared, the first thing Kagome saw was the underside of the car now pointing toward the sky. As Kagome scrambled to the edge in a panic, she realized they had apparently broken into some kind of small cavern.

Without thinking twice, she dropped to her knees and threw her arms around Ash, burying her face in the fur of his shoulder. "Yasha, I need you to go find help. Please hurry!" she whispered into his silver-white fur. When she loosened her embrace Ash turned and trotted off, giving her a final golden-eyed glance over his shoulder before disappearing around another turn.

Kagome lowered herself to her belly on the edge of the collapsed cavern and dangled from the edge, convincing herself to drop the last of the distance.

'It's only slightly more than your body height,' she reminded herself, forcing her fingers to relax and bracing for the impact. 'Now drop! …tucking your shoulder and rolling… _ow_, dammit!' a large fragment of broken glass embedded itself into her shoulder as she tumbled across the cavern floor to absorb the impact, she unthinkingly reached up and yanked out the shard, surprised as she felt the warm gush of blood. 'You're now bleeding severely. Well done Kagome.'

She banished the sarcastic self-deprecation and focused on the scene. First aid training took over and she assessed the damage to her friends. Eri had suffered a relatively minor head wound. Yuka was cradling her foot and looked intensely pained. Ayumi had broken both arms, probably trying to stiff-arm her landing, although not compound fractures from what Kagome could see where she lay.

She then approached the twisted heap of crumpled metal that had recently been a car and dropped to her knees beside it. "Korisu?" her voice was barely above a whisper, not really expecting an answer.

"Guys? I… think I'm hurt pretty bad."

A curious mix of relief and distress flooded her thoughts only to be quickly replaced by a cold, aching, mass of guilt forming an enormous anvil of pressure on Kagome's conscience that _pushed_.

'Someone is going to _die_ because we needed a car!'

Kagome made a decision. But it was her only choice, really.

She used the hole the glass had left in her sleeve to tear the rest of it off and tie it tightly around her shoulder as a makeshift bandage. Without missing a beat, she scooted over to the car, avoiding broken glass as best she could. She didn't see Korisu, but…

Kagome gave a gasp of surprised relief when she saw the small box she had held this morning within easy reach. She yanked it out with some effort and released the heavy, fire-red haori from its imprisonment, wrapping it around herself with a shiver of memory and longing.

In general Kagome tried to take it out and touch it as little as possible. She wanted the scent on it to never fade. It seemed like it never would, but Kagome took no chances.

But right now she needed it to protect her from the razor-sharp splinters of glass that clung to the windows and scattered across the ground around her, sunlight glinting off them like a field of stars.

Kagome closed her eyes for a moment and indulged in breathing the fragrance, so much like the tree that she had known since childhood, for a few moments before once again facing the present.

The scent had been so soothing when she had first met Inuyasha, and had almost certainly bolstered her patience with him and tolerance of his antics. At first she had assumed that it was because he spent so much time in Goshinboku's branches, but after a while, she realized that even if they didn't go anywhere near Edo for weeks, he still smelled astonishingly like the Sacred Tree. For a long time she had thought the cloth of the fire rat had been pressed against Goshinboku for so many decades that it had permanently incorporated the scent into its fibers.

But the first time she was close to Inuyasha when he wasn't wearing his clothing, Kagome discovered that she had been wrong. The Tree of Time had somehow become a part of his very skin.

"Um, Kagome, are you okay?" one of her friends queried from across the clearing.

After opening her eyes and forcing the blush down as far as she could, Kagome, using the red garment to protect herself from the ubiquitous shards of glass, sparkling like a thousand diamonds in the sunlight, reached as far into the window as she could, cringing as her full weight bore down on the jagged edges. The glass couldn't cut through the enchanted fabric, but it was horrifically uncomfortable nonetheless.

"Hang on in there, I'm coming in," she spoke to Korisu, reaching as far as she could into the passenger side, since the driver's side was up against the stone wall, and she didn't dare try and move the wreckage. She tried to feel for any part of Korisu, still speaking in soothing tones.

"I can help you but only if I can get some form of skin to skin contact." Eureka! She felt cloth that was not blanket material, and it was warm. "Korisu? What am I touching?"

"That's the middle of my back,"

_Shit_. Kagome couldn't reach any other part of her, and the middle of the back wouldn't have any bare skin near it. Kagome, with a brief apology used a shard of glass to cut a hole in Korisu's shirt. Of course she also sliced into the body underneath, but that couldn't be helped. Kagome felt that the other girl only twitched, not jumped. That was not a good sign.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, but even without seeing she knew she had begun to glow as she slipped one finger into the trapped girl's shirt, and a moment later sighed when a soft blue lit up the car, and she poured her healing energy in.

After a moment she heard a slightly stronger voice, "What are you _doing_? No, I can tell what you're doing, but _how_ are you doing it?" Kagome could hear surprise, awe, gratitude... but no fear, which is what Kagome had hoped to avoid. Then again this was Korisu, and she was insane. Hopefully her friends would allow her to help them before screaming and running away.

"That's a long, complicated story," she answered Korisu's question. She paused for a moment, the drain on her energy making her head spin and her stomach twist nauseatingly. When she had used all the power she dared, she eased out the window with a sigh of relief turned and with a sinking heart saw her friends giving her wary and distrustful looks.

"What are you, some kind of youkai?"

Kagome felt the corners of her mouth twitch into the beginnings of a hysterical grin as her eyes filled with tears. 'Don't break down, Kags, you're the only one here who's gone through worse... multiple times, even! If you crack, there's no way they're going to hold themselves together, and we'll all die.' Pushing herself off of the support of the wrecked car, Kagome straightened, "No. I am one hundred percent human, and that's not important right now," she said while studying her friends. She had dealt with the worst-off, who was second?

Eri looked faint, she was losing too much blood. Kagome walked over to her and placed her hands on Eri's. Eri didn't cringe away, but it seemed she was barely hanging onto consciousness anyway. The blue glow spread from her fingertips and in a few long minutes the lacerations closed as if they never existed.

It would have been much faster except Korisu had drained the majority of her energy. She had just poured in energy without giving it specific direction, largely because she had no idea the nature or extent of the injuries, and the energy would naturally be directed by Korisu's body to healing the most life-threatening problem first. She had also done it because there was no point in giving direction to repair specific damage if pretty much everything was damaged anyway. Kagome was sure that every speck of power would be used to help heal something, none going to waste. The only question was whether she had bought Korisu enough time for them to be found in time to save her.

After examining her other two friends, Kagome looked at the still-nearly-panicking Ayumi with an apologetic half-grin. "Sorry hon, I can't just heal broken bones, I can hasten the healing, but I'll have to set them first, or they'll heal wrong. After thinking on it for a while, she used the straightest branches of the collapsed tree and sapling that she could find as splints, thanking the gods when she realized that the base of the larger tree was still above ground. If she could climb it and if it could hold her weight, there was still an escape possibility left.

She addressed the last of the group, "I'm sorry, I can't help you Yuka. Bones were definitely crushed in your foot and you probably need surgery as soon as possible. Speeding the healing is the worst thing I could do." Yuka nodded.

Kagome sighed and leaned against a particularly comfy-looking rock. She was so, so tired. She just needed to rest for a moment…

Sleepy.

"Hey, the sun's going down," Yuka pointed out, "It's getting dark, and it's going to get cold."

"Any chance getting the trunk open to get to our stuff?" Eri addressed Kagome.

"The _trunk_ is now in the back seat." Her remark probably came off more foul-tempered than she had intended, and it was true that she was the only one that had been close enough to the wreck to tell for sure. Her head felt like it was stuffed full of steel wool and her stomach begged to empty itself on the ground in front of her.

"Well, any chance of getting the back seat open?" Eri replied gamely.

"Not unless we get a crowbar, and the only even vaguely possible candidates for crowbars are being splints. And before you think it, Ayumi, they would most definitely fail, and then we'd have neither crowbar nor splint. So unless someone _else_ has superpowers they've been hiding, we're out of luck." After a few seconds of silence Kagome sighed, trying to shake her mind clear of the dark shadows stealthily wrapping around it "I can see whether I can salvage anything from where I crawled in to heal Korisu… Just don't follow me, the entire thing's covered in broken glass and I don't want to heal any of you again." Kagome rested her forehead on her knees for a moment, exhausted.

"Won't you get cut?" Yuka asked.

"Mm," Kagome mumbled, "there really isn't any other option."

"We could try collecting all the shards."

Kagome gave an abrupt snicker. Yes, shard hunting! What could possibly go wrong?

"Yeah, I bet if we find … shards … keep them safe…"

"…nobody else will get hurt!"

Kagome was drifting on a sea of whirlpools as she felt her thoughts shut down, dissolve, and vaporize. The nonsense voices were coming from so far away…

"Kagome? Kagome, come on! We need you to help us find the shards! You can see them best out of all of us, you know."

Everything drifted away.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

She woke up slowly. 'Oh thank _god_ it was all just a dream.' Although when she thought about it, passing out from overexertion really wasn't any better.

"Kagome," Eri's voice cut in, "it's almost too dark to see the glass, but we got most of it while you were asleep."

Oh _please _no.

"You sure were sleepin'," Ayumi sounded rueful, This was the first time Ayumi had spoken since the accident that Kagome could recall, and was relieved that she was at least attempting to be herself. There was a strained quality to her voice that worried her, but there was nothing she could do about it at the present. Ayumi continued, "I kept yelling at ya before I knew you were asleep, but you didn't even move!"

So how much of that was a dream, anyway? Before Kagome could panic Yuka spoke. "Anyway, now there's just the glass left connected to the frame that'll slice ya up." Kagome wondered if she was deliberately parroting Ayumi's speech patterns before getting to the task at hand. She squeezed into the window as best as she could and started to yank on random objects, seeing if any came loose. After about fifteen minutes she had managed to liberate a cooler and three travel-blankets. The cooler contained five sandwiches, two bottles of water, and three wine coolers. Kagome immediately gave the first wine cooler to Ayumi, stowing everything else back in the cooler except the two bottles of water. She drew her own water canteen from her sweatshirt pouch and placed it next to them. At this point Kagome realized she had automatically taken control of the situation, and her friends had let her. They must still have some kind of trust in her… or they were in such dire straits that they would accept a leader they did not trust. Either way, she didn't have to worry about them fearing her for a while yet, anyway.

"Where are the other two blankets?" Ayumi asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Squished up against me," came Korisu's muffled voice.

"Oh good! Well, what do we do now… tell ghost stories?" the alcohol was definitely having some effect on Ayumi. At least she didn't seem on the edge of a breakdown anymore.

"Telling stories sounds like a good idea, and we've got a couple of bottles of water," Yuka said contemplatively.

"Kagome!"

"Yes?"

"Maybe you could tell us what th' hell you were up to in junior high!" Ayumi had definitely started to slur slightly.

Yuka and Eri quickly shushed her before glancing guiltily at Kagome.

Kagome tried to play it off, "Ha! Junior high was just a string of illness after illness and one hospital after another. Booo-riiing." Suddenly an idea struck her, "But… I'm good at making up fairy tales! That's what I did to pass the time, I made up a huge fairy tale story. It's an adventure story and a love story. This is the story of romance and danger, of royalty and magic, of good and evil, five hundred years in the past…

She began:

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Take me back, Kirara," Kagome muttered angrily, jumping on the cat-demon's back and zoning out as she took to the sky. She rubbed Kirara's ears absently, and felt a purr rumble through the demon's feline body.

Kagome was relieved to be finally going home at last. This had been one of the most insane series of events that had ever happened to her, which was especially impressive considering how her life had been one chaotic mess after another since Centipede Jourou had emerged from the well and dragged her five hundred years into the past, into the Sengoku Jidai.

Their group had entered a village decimated by wolves. A fight with a lethally fast demon, a kidnapping, a declaration of love, and a battle later, and Kagome was still trying to sort it all out.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Whoa! What?" Ayumi gasped.

"Er," Kagome stumbled, train of thought derailed. Maybe that had been a bad place to start? Well, it _was_ a good story… There was absolutely no way she was going to start all the way back to Centipede Jourou, but she could back up a little. Should she start with the kidnapping? No, wait, better back up just a little bit further…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The air was thick with the smell of blood. The shard hunters ran into the village and froze, horrified at the sight of an enormous wolf pack devouring the poor villagers with abandon. How was this possible? Wolves didn't prey on humans! How…

The wolves had noticed them.

In moments they were surrounded. The group stood back to back, facing outward at the wolves on all sides. In moments the wolves leapt for their throats, and Kagome only had a moment to panic before a blur of silver and red flashed before them. The score of wolves fell to the ground in a spray of blood and pained howls, the remaining handful backing away and turning tail, running to a small rise before sending up a chorus of howls.

The group of shard hunters only had moments to wait until a demonic aura and a whirlwind appeared, racing towards them. Kagome gasped, "Jewel shards, closing in fast!" a moment before the whirlwind reached them.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Whaaaaaat?" this time it was Eri who interrupted. "Jewel shards?"

Kagome sighed in frustration. "I don't know where to start!"

"Duh, at the beginning!"

"I have no idea where… the beginning? The beginning is at the dawn of time! The story begins at the very birth of the universe!"

"Um. Cliff's notes version?"

"Er, I can try… I guess?" Kagome said hesitantly.

"We've got time."

"Well, okay. You asked for it! Here goes…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

End Chapter

Next up: Kagome tries to tell the story from the very beginning, and doesn't get more than a few minutes of her friends' attention spans. Hyper girls, even after high school! Adult ADD I tellya. All of 'em.

I got some inquiries about the pairing/s, which I hadn't mentioned earlier because the reasoning behind them is really complicated. The short version is that it's looking like pretty much equal parts Kagome/Inuyasha and Kagome/Kouga, (so predictably - if you'll excuse the colloquialism - Aint _nobody_ happy 'bout that.) A few other pairings, canon and otherwise, will pop up in the background. Further explanation (along with review responses, chapter notes, and misc stuff) can be found at my fanfic LJ: squizbee (dot) livejournal (dot) com

Reviewers earn my eternal gratitude.


	3. On Mythology

Divided Loyalty, Demonic Love

By c2t2

Part: 3/(?)

Disclaimer: I don't even own the clothes on my back, much less Inuyasha. I also have no money.

Chapter Summary: Here begins the fairy tale…

AN: The first part inspired by the beginning of movie 3... with a few crucial changes.

Review responses, chapter notes, and related stuff can be found at my fanfic LJ:

squizbee (dot) livejournal (dot) com.

A special thanks to Actual-Dionysius, who generously offered his services as a beta and whom I forgot to credit in the preceding chapter. *cringe*

-

Chapter 3- On Mythology.

_-_

_More than 700 years ago…_

-

"My lord, you must reconsider!" the brewing storm whipped through the silver hair of the figures standing atop the cliffside.

The mournful howl of the gale was her only answer, save the splash of blood that painted the stones whenever he moved. Her tone calmed, "I cannot let you do this," she said, one hand inching toward her sword.

"You would kill me?" his deep voice finally cut through the air, sounding more curious than angry.

"You've left me no choice, my lord," her voice just above a whisper. "You will always do as you wish. If you will leave your swords behind, I will not interfere."

His silence was answer enough.

"Very well then," no sooner had her hand closed over the hilt of her sword than the Lady of the West completely lost sensation of her hand at all. "My lord?" she whispered, a single bubble of blood forming on her lips as she collapsed, a heap of slowly reddening silver hair and silk. She hadn't even seen him move

"Resist the pallbearers. I will revive you." His golden eyes betrayed a brief sense of regret as his wife bled out on the ground before him.

Her fading eyesight watched him turn away, steeling himself to stay alive long enough to save both women from the fate he was fast approaching.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The Fairy Tale

_The world as we know it has not one, but two beginnings, both of them true. One is the origin of the universe taught in school, the other is the origin of spirits. Nobody knows what happened, exactly, because no consciousness existed to see and remember, but at some point in the Void before time, there was an Event… and Fire was born. With fire was born the first fire elementals, and through them, the universe became conscious of itself__._

-

"Wow, Kagome, you weren't kidding when you said the beginning was the beginning…"

"Hey, zippit. _You_ guys asked for it, right?" she growled, pinning them with an impressive glare. The other girls nodded meekly.

_-_

_Fire, water, stone, air, the elementals were alone in the universe, but then … When some unknown threshold was met for the first time by living things, the spirits were given form. Which life forms were first has been lost to time, but once in a while a certain kind of living thing would appear that had spirits, conscious spirits, of its essence and form. The elementals took whatever forms they pleased, but the animal spirits had at least two forms, one they chose and one which resembled the creatures they were kin to. These were the first youkai_.

_Youkai were real, tangible, and visible – one of the only ways their magical nature manifested is that their bodies vanish and cease to exist soon after they die, their grave a dimension between worlds. Youkai and some of the elementals could live as long as they desired, provided they were not killed. You could always recognize a youkai that was growing weary of life, since it would appear withered and aged. Sometimes it would happen days before the youkai's death; sometimes it took many centuries_.

-

"In fact, youkai of one of the smaller flying dinosaurs existed - and were rather young-looking - to within only a few centuries of _today!_"

"Wait, how would you know?!" Ayumi interrupted.

Eri elbowed her in the ribs, "_Her_ fairy tale, duh!"

Ayumi blushed, mumbling, "I forgot."

"Hey! Would you guys just let me tell the thing? The point was supposed to be that youkai live until they are killed or choose to die, but anyway…"

_-_

_Time progressed, and eventually there was another strange twist of chance or fate. Humans arose. Humans, it seemed, were unique in that they didn't have any youkai for the species, but were, themselves, aware. They had no need of youkai, since they were aware of themselves and of the universe. Strangely, many youkai appeared around the same time as humans that resembled nothing the Earth had ever seen, and no one knew where they came from. Oni, gaki and the many other relatively low-level youkai from folklore were suddenly common. Curiously, youkai for disease, grief, and other abstract concepts also sprang into existence. Even more curiously, once humans appeared, most higher-level youkai chose forms that were human or humanoid_.

-

"Lots of pretentious mystical reasons have been proposed to explain why… but it's probably just because of the opposable thumbs. That or the recreational sex drive."

"Kagome!"

"What?"

"You're coming up with theories about your own fairy tale?"

"Um…What if I am? Unless you want to take over the stories, shut up and let me tell it! Anyway…"

_-_

_Many thousands of years ago, Man found an ally in Wolf, and over millennia, Dog was born, and with Dog, came inu-youkai. The greatest among these was known only as the Inu no Taisho. He lived for millennia and grew powerful, wandering the world, until eventually he came to Japan, where he ruled over the West, until, about 700 years ago, two very important things happened at roughly the same time._

_First of these was the rise of a warrior priestess named Midoriko. She not only had the power to destroy malevolent youkai, but she had the ability to cleanse and purify their souls, stripping them of all power. The times were dark, and ceaseless famine and war spawned evil youkai, who feasted on the dead and dying, creating more of their own at an alarming rate. Midoriko was the only one who could stand against them, so she did, and that made her many enemies._

_One day, the ogres, dragons, and other dark youkai of the lands joined in a massive attempt to end Midoriko's life. They battled for seven days and seven nights, until a great demon finally captured her in its jaws and sank its teeth into her flesh. Midoriko, refusing to yield, took hold of its soul, and in doing so, her own soul was forced from her body, and the entire mass of demons turned to stone along with her. What she had forced out of her body was the Shikon no Tama, her soul waging an eternal war against the souls of the demons trapped inside with her_.

-

"Hey, I recognize that legend!" Yuka chirped, shrinking back when she saw the glares the others leveled at her. Kagome, however, only smiled wanly, her eyes and thoughts still far away as she continued to speak.

_-_

_The second thing that happened around this time… is the Inu no Taisho, despite recently fathering a son to inherit his domain, fell in love. Her name was Izayoi, a hime living in his domain, and she was human_.

-

The other girls grew quiet when they heard this. A youkai and a human, the classic setup… which never ended well.

_-_

_This kind of thing had happened before, for every sentient creature is capable of falling in love with another, and hanyou children had been born. However, never had a daiyoukai fallen so low, and when it became known that the hime was with child, the Inu no Taisho was challenged to fight the most powerful and wicked youkai that existed as they tried to use this misfortune to bring down the terrible daiyoukai and seize power for themselves. With the strength of a demon lord who has something to protect, the Inu no Taisho slew them all, until only their leader stood in his way. Ryukossei, the dark dragon, was his final bloody battle, and the ending was horrific. The fight occurred on the night Izayoi was to give birth, and the Inu no Taisho was pushed to his limit and beyond. The fight was long and bloody, and both parties were wounded gravely. The Inu no Taisho, in a final act of desperation, sealed the great dragon into dormancy and raced toward the distress he sensed from the beautiful hime. Nearly all was lost as the Inu no Taisho's first wife, the mother of his heir, at last turned on her husband and tried to challenge him, hoping to salvage the family honor before all was lost. The Inu no Taisho, in desperation, slew his wife, intending to revive her once he had rescued the hime, but even that slight delay cost him dearly, for by the time he reached the castle, Izayoi lay dead, slain by a jealous human with a spear through her heart. Her newborn wailed alone on the floor as the mansion burned around them._

_The Inu no Taisho drew on the last of his power and channeled it into an enchanted sword to revive his lost love. He placed the babe in her arms and wrapped them in a haori enchanted to resist flame and blade alike. The lord summoned the last of his power and turned before the mortal wounds inflicted by Ryukossei overcame him, buying time for Izayoi to escape and holding off the guards as the mansion collapsed on top of him, sealing the fate of all who were still inside_.

-

Kagome heard a small noise and paused her story. Ayumi, clutching her nearly empty wine cooler, had overly-bright eyes, and the other two looked solemn.

"That was rather depressing," Eri murmured. Kagome felt tears in her own eyes as she unscrewed the cap of her canteen and took a swig to wet her throat before speaking.

"Do you guys want me to stop…?"

"No!" they chorused.

"…Because this next part doesn't get any better," she finished quietly after her friends interrupted her.

They paused, then Eri spoke up, "Sure, Kagome. It's not like we have anything better to do, and it's just a fairy tale after all, right?" Yuka was the only one who noticed the shadow passing over Kagome's face at those words, and deep in her mind, she began to wonder…

Kagome sighed, and once again lost herself to the story.

_-_

_In the moments before his death, the Inu no Taisho had named his son Inuyasha, and so the boy grew. Life was unimaginably difficult for a hanyou, and he knew suffering since the day he was born. His mother loved him with all her heart, but she passed away when he was still a young man of about fifteen, though he looked even younger. He encountered persecution and hatred from everyone he met, and that is how he lived his first century, and half of his second, until, 550 years ago, he learned of the Shikon no Tama._

_Midoriko's jewel was said to grant any wish, and if a pure wish was made, the jewel itself would be purified, and vanish. Then Midoriko's soul could move on at last. But Inuyasha finally saw a way to end his suffering, and become a true demon. He found the priestess who guarded the jewel, named Kikyou, and_…

-

Kagome paused. She still couldn't bear to fully tell this part, so she brushed past it, "and somehow, despite their opposite goals and backgrounds, the two outcasts of the world fell in love."

Kagome sighed and shifted position slightly. Her leg was already falling asleep.

_-_

_The hanyou and the miko made a plan to use the jewel and free them both. If Inuyasha used the jewel to turn himself into a human, Kikyou believed it would be a pure wish made to free her, and the jewel would vanish. Inuyasha would no longer be hated and hunted, and Kikyou would be free of her duty to guard the jewel, so they could finally be together and happy_.

-

Ayumi was getting misty-eyed, but the others remembered Kagome's warning too well to relax.

_-_

_However, it was not to be. Kikyou was secretly caring for the injuries of a wicked man who lusted after her body and desired to taint her soul with malice. He gave himself to be devoured by countless demons in return for their power, and became a hanyou who called himself Naraku, with the ability to change his appearance at will. He set Kikyou and Inuyasha up to believe they had betrayed one another, and hoped it would taint the jewel and leave Kikyou at his mercy. The plan began perfectly, and after each thought the other had betrayed them, Inuyasha set off to steal the jewel and Kikyou set off to kill Inuyasha._

_It was at this point that events started to diverge from Naraku's plan. Kikyou shot Inuyasha through the heart and his body hung limp and lifeless from a single arrow against a holy tree, but Kikyou, rather than using the Shikon no Tama to save herself, died and took the jewel to the afterlife. Also not in Naraku's plans, Kikyou's arrow had been an arrow of sealing, not purification, and so Inuyasha did not fully die. However, both of their souls cried out in hatred and betrayal, and neither could move on, until another fifty years had passed_.

Kagome fell out of the storytelling trance. She decided to just outline just the rest of the story and move on. "Kikyou's reincarnation arrived on the scene fifty years later, and accidentally freed Inuyasha from his prison… and to make a very, _very_ long story short: the jewel reappeared with Kikyou's reincarnation, and was (purely accidentally!) blown into a million smithereens. So now, the reincarnation, let's call her, uh, 'Kagome,' has a duty to gather the fragments until the jewel is whole once again. First, she finds a spell of subjugation just in time to keep Inuyasha from killing her, then they travel around, finding shards and battling Naraku, and pick up traveling companions consisting of a kitsune cub, a lecherous monk, a taijiya, and a… saber-toothed nekomata fire elemental."

-

"…Kagome, I thought this was a fairytale, not a self-insert!" Eri groaned.

Kagome yawned. "Would _you_ like to tell the stories for a while? I'd be happy to just listen, you know!" Kagome was actually rather proud of herself. She'd had to fudge a little for some of the story, but the structure was all there.

"No, no. Go ahead!"

"Oh, and I forgot, Kikyou is also resurrected into a clay doll made of bones and gravesite soil."

"_Kagome_…"

"What? Do you want me to stop? I can do that, just ask!"

"… Go ahead."

A sudden flash of insight. "Heeeey, let's pretend that this really _is_ a self insert! The Kagome in the story is _me_, and I have a… a magical mirror that can send me 500 years back through time!"

"…"

Well, at least now she wouldn't have to pretend she was talking about someone else…

"So, where was I? Oh, wolves!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The air was thick with the smell of blood. The shard hunters ran into the village and froze, horrified at the sight of an enormous wolf pack devouring the poor villagers with abandon. How was this possible? Wolves didn't attack humans! How…

Unable to contain their horrified gasps, the group realized they had a fight on their hands. The wolves had noticed them.

In moments they were surrounded. The group stood back to back, facing outward at the wolves on all sides. In moments the pack leapt for their throats, and Kagome only had a moment to panic before a blur of silver and red flashed before them, "_Sankon Tessou_!" The score of wolves fell to the ground in a spray of blood and agonized whimpers, the remaining handful backing away and turning tail, running to a small hill before sending up a chorus of mournful howls.

The group of shard hunters only had moments to wait until a demonic aura and a whirlwind appeared, racing towards them. Kagome gasped, "Jewel shards, closing in fast!" a moment before the swirling vortex reached them.

A figure leapt out of the whirlwind. The figure of a man, impossibly fast, shot out of the tornado toward them, bracing himself as he slid to a stop. There was a blur of motion, and his hair whipped around his face as he skidded to a halt in front of them. The wolves immediately gathered around him, and after a few seconds the stranger approached them, his face dark with fury.

"You bastards! How dare you kill my wolves!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

To be continued…

On ffnet, for the first chapter I just had 'Kagome' and no second character indicated. I've since added Kouga as the other, but that's because I'll use his POV occasionally, not as a preference for the 'final' pairing vs Inuyasha. (I've already changed my mind once or twice or fourteen times on that already, so no guarantees... except that there will be plenty of both).

About the delay getting this chapter up: early April I found myself suddenly without a home, job, money, or family, and was locked up without access to a computer for four months… despite not having committed any crimes. (Maybe it would have been better if I had. Many of my fellow …'guests' were remarking how much better they were treated in _prison_ than where we were. Blah!)

So that put a dent in my writing.

Also, _day-um_ this chapter was a labor of love! Y'all had better be grateful! (grumblegrumblemutter)


	4. With Repetition

Divided Loyalty, Demonic Love

By c2t2

Part: 4/(?)

Disclaimer: If you add everything I own to all the money I make, you get a negative number.

Chapter summary: I follow canon pretty closely on this one.

Warnings: Eh, not much. Some language?

AN: The canon details I've altered, emphasized, or elaborated on will probably come up later in the plot. Assume anything I skimmed happened the same as canon. "Canon" is a mix-n-match of anime and manga, depending on my whim.

Last time:

_A figure leapt out of the whirlwind. The figure of a man, impossibly fast, shot out of the tornado toward them, bracing himself as he slid to a stop. There was a blur of motion, and his hair whipped around his face as he skidded to a halt in front of them. The wolves immediately gathered around him, and after a few seconds the man approached them, his face dark with fury._

"_You bastards! How dare you kill my wolves!_"

Chapter 4: With repetition

_It's..._

Kagome tried to keep her mind on what was happening.

_You've gone into the woods. You've met the wolf. _

They really needed her right now. This was the one she sensed! Before she got a chance to speak, Inuyasha had confronted the man - _Youkai_, she corrected herself, noting claws and pointed ears - and the battle between Inuyasha and the newcomer began.

Kagome was not afraid of wolves. The funny feeling in her stomach was from an altogether different set of complex emotions.

_You've met the wolf. There's no way out..._

_There isn't time for this right now!_ she thought, ignoring the slightly frayed edge to her thoughts.

After trading insults, Inuyasha attacked with Tessaiga. Before he hit, the youkai blurred, leaping into the air and rebounding off it as if it were solid. He spun into a vortex and his fist slammed into the ground with an impact that Inuyasha just barely dodged. Another blur and the youkai's heel slammed into Inuyasha's face, throwing him back a dozen feet.

_There's no way out except..._

Kagome finally had an opportunity to shout a warning about the demon's shards. At the sound of her voice the youkai turned, and for an endless moment his blue gaze locked with Kagome's, sending a shiver down her body. And immediately the fighters launched into another round of insults. The demon with blue eyes identified himself as 'Kouga, son of the Yourouzoku'.

_A blue eyed wolf! _

Kagome noticed Shippo wiggling around in her arms a moment before she heard growls on all sides, making the tiny hairs on her arms and neck stand on end.

"Aaahhh!" Shippo wailed, "They're closing in on us!"

"Kirara!" Sango's strong voice was completely unafraid.

_You've met the wolf. There's no way out except… _

The tiny kitten bounded forward between the wolves and humans and started to hiss. For a moment the wolves looked confused and vaguely insulted, until Kirara transformed in a rush of flame and roared. Then there were only yelps as the wolves turned tail and ran off.

Shippo leapt atop Kirara. "Yahaha, look at em run!" he crowed, then turned to face the battle. "The rest is up to you, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha probably would have shot him an annoyed look, but he was having far too much trouble with Kouga.

_Focus, Kagome. There's no time for this right now. _

The hanyou swept Tessaiga down in a powerful overhand blow; graceless and enthusiastic in classic Inuyasha style. Kouga smirked, then vanished an inch before the sword connected. He appeared a score of yards away and built momentum into a punch that would have knocked Inuyasha across the ghost town, except the hanyou rolled onto his back at the last second and jammed his heels into the demon's solar plexus, turning the wolf's momentum against him and launching him back over his head onto a rooftop on the other side of the dirty town.

Instead of landing, Kouga lashed out one heel as he touched down and the entire structure collapsed in a cloud of dust. They saw his figure rise easily, apparently not even winded from the impacts.

"Tsh, you can barely defend yourself, let alone attack me!" he taunted Inuyasha. Then he charged.

"Stay back, guys," Inuyasha growled to them, and readied Tessaiga.

Kouga charged.

Inuyasha raised Tessaiga overhead and screamed a wordless challenge to the wolf demon, who answered by leaping into the air and aiming a final strike at his hanyou opponent. Both of them seemed to agree that this would be the final exchange, and Inuyasha readied the kaze no kizu.

A sudden jolt seemed to run through Kouga, and his eyes widened for a moment in what might have been panic. Kagome started as once again he seemed to rebound off of midair and landed on a rooftop across from them, calling out to his wolves, "Withdraw!" before the familiar tornado disappeared in the direction from which he had come, the wolves close behind.

For a moment, the shard hunters stared.

"He... ran away?" Inuyasha seemed dumbfounded, mouth slightly ajar.

"Very readily too!" Kagome was present enough to shake her head at the apparent cowardice.

Sango and Miroku didn't seem to think so.

_You've gone into the woods. You've met the wolf. There's no way out except… There's no way out except..._

The group started in the direction the wolves had left, intending to track down Kouga and take his jewel shards.

Not long after they were on the trail, Kagome found herself zoning out, ignoring Inuyasha and Shippo bickering as they tried to track the wolves.

It was a gorgeous day. The blue sky contained only a few puffy clouds. It was a little over-warm, but the foliage and angle of the mountain meant they were mostly out of direct sunlight.

She was determinedly NOT thinking about a certain event in her past.

If only it wasn't so quiet...

Kagome found herself listening for the twitter of birds, the dull hum of insects, something, anything that wasn't the howl of wind and the faint roar of water far below.

Nothing.

The wind was at their backs, and even Kagome knew that it put them at a large disadvantage. Inuyasha, Shippo, and Kirara couldn't smell what lay ahead. It seemed the wolves knew the mountains extremely well, enough to use the very air currents to their advantage.

It was far too quiet.

Just as she opened her mouth to ask, Inuyasha gave a sudden call, "Wolves!" and took off down the path. Kagome could just see the end of a tail disappear around a corner ahead.

As Inuyasha leapt to follow, everything seemed to happen at once.

A flood of wolves leapt from above, knocking Inuyasha clear off the path and down the seemingly endless cliff.

Kagome rushed to see if he was okay, there was a blur and a blast of air hit her as something shot into the sky. She shielded her eyes, trying to peer into the sun to see what it was, but before she could make out more than a silhouette, the figure shot out of the sky and she felt an arm like a band of iron slam into her waist, knocking her breath out all at once as she felt herself being carried over the edge of the cliff.

"Ha, she's MINE!" came a familiar voice. Kagome turned and saw her captor was none other than Kouga, who had apparently just thrown her over his shoulder with her legs dangling down his back, and wondered what the heck was going on.

Then she remembered that they had fallen over the edge of the cliff.

Kagome shrieked as they fell faster and faster.

She gripped onto the wolf demon's arms and screamed and screamed until she heard him shout, "Quit screaming in my ear, woman!"

Now she was ticked off as well as scared, "I'm panicking! Kyaa kyaa KYAA!"

They had reached level ground once again, and Kouga had turned and was looking over his other shoulder. Kagome looked back into the sky and saw that they were being chased by at least a dozen hideous flying demons. "What the...?"

"Fucking birds... hey woman, see if any of them have jewel shards!" Kagome gave him a blank look, but he was having none of it, "Don't give me that... do any of those birds have a jewel shard!"

Kagome scanned the sky, "...There's none!" _Not that I would tell you... jerk!_

"You sure? Then we're outta here!" Kouga shifted his grip, tucking her under his arm and holding her against his body.

_Wha? Oh! He's putting himself between me and the birds!_ she realized with a strange feeling. _What in the world is going on?_

"Hang on... let's move!" They accelerated to an unbelievable speed so quickly that Kagome would have shrieked again if she could find the breath. "Ha... suck on that! You bastards have no chance of catching me!" he taunted over his shoulder. Kagome would have said something sarcastic, but the words were lost to the howling wind as they zoomed across the mountains.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

In a hidden little pocket of a canyon bordered by terraced cliffs, they finally slowed to a stop. Kagome gazed upon a sparkling waterfall that streamed down over a long drop into a jewel-like pool surrounded by greenery. The only thing that separated it from a vision of paradise were the wolf demons who emerged to greet their leader.

"Kouga!"

"Welcome home!"

"The young lord's back!"

With nothing more than a cheerful "Tadaima!" Kouga leapt straight through the waterfall to a hidden cave behind it.

"Kyaa, cold!" was Kagome's only comment as they broke through the icy cascade. She stopped short as she heard her voice echoed back to her, and looked around as Kouga set her on her feet and pulled her through the surprisingly well-lit cavern. _This must be the Yourouzoku den!_ She looked around.

The hungry growls of the demons were making her nervous, though.

"That's a tempting-looking woman you got there..."

"Can I have one of the legs?"

"Lovely prey, Kouga."

"Please, please let us eat her too?"

Passing piles of bones, Kagome stumbled over a few that lay strewn over the floor as Kouga roughly dragged her by the arm. _Oh god... this place is full of man-eating wolves and skeletons! I'm almost certain that some of those bones are human..._

She was not afraid of wolves. Kagome hated worms. She wasn't fond of heights. But, she had no fear of wolves. Normal wolves.

"Oof!" Kouga had tossed her on a bed of straw near the back of the main cavern. Then the demons advanced on her. Kagome was just saying her final prayers when she heard Kouga snarl.

"She's _not food_. Anyone who tries to eat this woman, dies!" The other wolf demons cringed back from his tone, and a horrible idea dawned on her.

_Not food? Oh no... please tell me I'm not here as some kind of... 'entertainment'!_ Kagome thought, slightly hysterical.

Her heart clenched as she heard his next words, "You guys can eat this one instead."

"Kagomeeee!" Shippo wailed, terrified.

Shippo had somehow managed to hang on all the way to the caves.

Kagome lunged for the kitsune, only to miss as Kouga held him up out of her reach, looking mildly interested. A few threats and negotiations later and she held the precious kitsune in her lap once again.

Kouga sat down on the furs across from her, "I need you to help us in exchange for the brat's life. Deal?"

There was really only one answer she could give. "Okay..."

"Good." Kouga's sat across from her as Kagome held Shippo in her lap. "It's those birds who came after us. They call themselves Gokurakuchou. They recently came to our mountains from the north, fleeing from something, we don't know what.

"We've fought them for a while now and more or less held our own, but a few weeks ago their leader somehow acquired a jewel shard. Now our pack is almost completely wiped out."

"But... why are they attacking you?"

Kouga's voice was steady, but his face was solemn and he didn't look at her as he answered in terse sentences, "Since they arrived, the prey in these mountains is almost completely wiped out. They're starving. So are we. We've turned to eating humans. They've turned to eating us. We've come across their nests before and found them _covered_ with wolf bones. They target the young first, then the females. Now pretty much all that's left of us are the fastest and strongest adult males of our tribe. We used to rule these mountains, but now the handful of us left have moved into these caves so they can't just swoop down on us in the middle of the night."

Kagome felt a twinge of sympathy, "That's awful!"

"That's why you're here. We're going to attack them, and you'll tell us the location of the jewel shard."

"So your pack is in danger, and that's why you want my help?" Kouga just looked at her silently. "Okay, I'll do it." _I'd better pretend to cooperate... until Inuyasha can find me_. But Kagome couldn't deny that she felt for the plight of the wolves.

Perhaps she would help them after all.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome sat on the bed, absently picking at a piece of straw that had worked its way out from under the furs beneath her.

They were leaving within the hour. Kouga had offered her some of the boar the wolves had brought back, apparently forgetting or unaware that humans needed their food cooked, until he had seen her expression as she refused. Kagome wished vainly for her backpack and its supply of what her friends had termed 'ninja food'. They had left their supplies in Kaede's village since they only meant to be gone for a few hours, before coming upon the slain village.

Then there was the way Kouga had looked at her before he left...

Just before walking off, Kouga stopped and stared at her with a bizarre expression which melted into something that made Kagome more than a little uneasy. He looked like he was about to say something, but instead he just walked off, looking ponderous.

Kagome was worried. The way he looked at her had been almost... hungry.

She had to get Shippo out of here.

Kagome jumped and bit back a shriek when a clawed finger tapped her on the shoulder.

"Stand up," came Shippo's voice from behind her.

Kagome suppressed a startled jump when she saw that Shippo had transformed into an almost perfect replica of Kouga. _Wow, he's really getting good at that._

"Come _on_, Kagome. Let's get out of here before they get suspicious!"

"Shippo," she whispered, "there's no way that'll work..."

"It will. Those furs _reek_ of Kouga, and he carried us all the way here. His scent should be strong enough on both of us that the others won't notice… as long as they're not paying too close attention." Shippo started to look uneasy.

_Guess it's worth a shot_. Kagome quickly stood up before she could change her mind. Shippo grabbed her by the arm and pretended to roughly drag her through the cave toward the waterfall. Kagome was terrified for Shippo. She was sure the entire cave could smell her fear, but hopefully they would think she was only afraid of 'Kouga'...

Kagome was so wrapped up in her own thoughts she completely missed it when one of the Yourouzoku called out to Shippo-turned-Kouga, but she did hear Shippo reply in a fake-deep voice that sounded painfully un-Kouga-like to her, "Getting her some air, it fuckin' _stinks_ in here."

For the second time in as many minutes, Kagome's terror subsided just enough to be impressed at Shippo's skill.

They had fooled the Yourouzoku, who were off guard, but Shippo hadn't counted on one thing: the wolves, far more dependent on pure scent, wouldn't be as easy to fool.

When they were within a few feet of the falls, one of the wolves clamped down on Shippo's tail and he untransformed with a squeal.

_Oh sh_... was the only thing Kagome had time to think before they were facing a bristling wall of weapons.

Kagome didn't have time to think, just react. Grabbing a discarded spear, she readied it in front of her before grabbing Shippo and making a dash through the waterfall. The moment it took for the Yourouzoku to get over their shock and give chase was enough time for Kagome to dash to the cliff edge and throw the fox-child into the wild blue. "Shippo, find Inuyasha!"

"You're not getting away!" One of the Yourouzoku flung a chain-weapon after the departing Kitsune to capture him, and Kagome unthinkingly slammed the butt of her spear into the chain to interrupt it. The spear was torn from her hands, and nearly took Kagome over the edge with it. Now she stood alone and unarmed, facing the mob of enraged Yourouzoku.

"Wench," one of them growled, stalking forward, "I'll devour you alive!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome's mind cleared.

The palm of her right hand was stinging.

Something big had happened. And if she could just focus, Kagome knew she could figure out what it was.

Okay, the wolf demon had threatened her… Eek!

What then?

...Kouga had appeared and saved her.

Well, that was a relief.

What then?

Then she saw red, and the palm of her right hand stung.

_Wait._

Back up...

The wolf demons stalking towards her, hunger in their eyes...

No, no. Too far. Skip ahead a little bit...

...

"I'm gonna make you my woman!"

_Eh? _

The other wolves seemed to have similar reactions.

Kouga's arm wrapped around her waist, and he drew her firmly against him. Kagome's entire body flushed, and she felt a fluttering panic rising...

Absolute silence, broken only by a sharp _crack_. Kagome realized her right palm stung. A spot of red had bloomed on Kouga's cheek, and he, along with the rest of the Yourouzoku, appeared stupefied.

"Oh my god. That girl's gonna _die_."

She had slapped him? Huh.

Kouga looked more thoughtful than angry. He was staring at her as if seeing her for the first time.

What had happened then?

"I might not be available! Did you ever think of that?"

"You don't mean... that mutt Inukkoro, do you?"

"He's Inu_yasha_! Don't call him that!"

...

What had happened then?

"...won't be much competition from a pile of bones."

A demonic glint in his eyes, Kouga turned his back on her and strode away, and Kagome felt the icy fingers of fear clench around her heart.

...

Oh, so that's what had happened.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome crouched behind a boulder as the inhuman shrieks of the birdlike demons echoed around her, staying as close to Kouga as her pride would allow.

"So, the Gokurakuchou nest in this mountain?"

"Yes," Kouga replied, "it's your job to spot the one with a shard of the jewel."

"All right." There was a jewel shard on the mountain, she could sense it. _I wish Inuyasha was here._

The Gokurakuchou spotted them.

"Looks like they're onto us. Take care of the small fry!" Kouga called to his troops. "Come on, Kagome." He gently grabbed her around the waist and jumped. Kagome couldn't stifle another shriek as Kouga bounded up the mountain, slashing the bird demons apart with his free hand as he went, the abrupt impacts nearly giving her whiplash. Her stomach felt like it had been left somewhere on the ground far below. _Please come quickly, Inuyasha!_ Kagome looked back at the battle and was horrified. Kouga had been slashing the Gokurakuchou apart rather easily, but it looked like it took at least four of the others to take down each bird demon. The stones ran with blood and shrieks of pain reached her even through the rush of wind.

Kouga's voice broke Kagome out of her thoughts, "Kagome, we'll reach the boss's nest shortly."

"Shortly?" There was a sudden, unmistakable pulse of power. "Kouga, right in front! I can see a Shikon fragment!"

A giant, mutant bird demon burst out of the mountain in front of them. Kouga again turned to put his body between Kagome and the splinters of stone whizzing past.

_Wow, I didn't think those things could get much uglier_. The Gokurakuchou king looked like the Youkai version of Siamese twins, with two humanoid torsos growing out of the main head-body.

"Kukuku we've been waiting for you, brat from the youkai wolf tribe!"

"Kagome, where is the Shikon shard?"

She concentrated for a moment, "It's... inside its mouth!"

Kagome got a much closer view of the demon's mouth than she wanted as the Gokurakuchou king opened its giant mouth and tried to swallow them whole. Kouga's arm tightened around her waist and jumped out of the way and down the mountain at the dizzying speed Kagome didn't think she would ever get used to. In a blink they were back on the ground next to Kouga's two sub-commanders - _Ginta and Hakkaku_ Kagome remembered. The two flunkies were winded, having just killed one of the demons. Kagome was actually somewhat impressed, since not ten meters away nearly a dozen Yourouzoku and wolves were trying to bring down a single Gokurakuchou.

"Kouga!" they still found the breath to greet their leader.

"Protect Kagome!" Kouga grabbed a discarded weapon, and when Kagome objected simply said, "I'm the only one strong enough to fight it," before vanishing in a whirlwind.

"Let's get you to safety, Nee-san," Ginta ordered.

"..._Nee-san_?"

"Human or not, Kouga's woman is still one of us."

Kagome barely got started correcting them (loudly) when Ginta cried "Watch out!" and shoved her out of the way just as one of the Gokurakuchou swooped past, Ginta jamming a spear into its enormous face as it started to fly away, the unfortunate wolf demon firmly clutched in its talons.

"We gotta save him!" Kagome gasped.

"Too late," Hakkaku replied, "he'll be taken to the nest and devoured."

Kagome refused to give up. It should have been her in the demon's claws, but Ginta had pushed her aside at the last second, leaving him no time to make his own escape.

There! A bow and three arrows next to one of the fallen Yourouzoku, who was hopefully just unconscious, but probably dead. Kagome notched an arrow and fired with a prayer that she wouldn't miss.

Her prayer was answered when her sacred arrow tore the demon in two, instantly killing it. Ginta bounced off its body and fell to the ground as Kagome rushed to him, he thanked her while the few nearby Yourouzoku murmured nervously.

"There's more!" Kagome turned around to see a whole flock of the Gokurakuchou descending on them. She had two arrows left and no time to fire them. Kagome closed her eyes and waited for the end when she heard Inuyasha's voice calling her name.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome's relief increased along with the nearby Yourouzoku's uneasiness as Inuyasha ripped through several of the bird demons with Tessaiga. He jumped up the mountain while Miroku's Kazaana took care of the rest.

"Who in the hell are these humans?"

Kagome ignored everyone else, trying to make out what was happening up on the mountain through the glare of the sun. The Gokurakuchou had destroyed Kouga's weapon and the wolf demon in turn had killed one of the two heads while Inuyasha injured one of its wings. The injured bird flew off and Kagome ran toward the pair, who seemed to be arguing about something. When she got close enough to hear...

"Kagome is my woman now. I won't let anyone have her!"

Kagome's so-called friends turned towards her with speculative expressions. "He's making it up!" Did they really have such a low opinion of her virtue?

Her thoughts ground to a halt at Kouga's next words. Had Kouga just literally shouted from the mountaintops that he was in love with her? Her friends' expressions seemed to confirm that she wasn't hallucinating.

"She can see the jewel shards, she's got guts, and she's a damn fine woman too!"

Kagome was seriously considering whether Kouga was her new favorite person when she realized he and Inuyasha had started trying to kill each other. "Hey, stop fighting! I haven't been hurt!"

"That's not the point!" Inuyasha roared.

"Don't worry Kagome, once you've been with me, you won't even remember this dog-turd's name!"

Kouga once again managed to crash Kagome's train of thought so she just stared, caught between mortification and disbelief.

Inuyasha had just resumed trying to kill Kouga when Kagome felt a pulse. "The Jewel..." she could deal with Inuyasha in a minute.

"Kouga-kun, it's right above you!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Inuyasha freeze and turn toward her with possibly the most hilarious expression she had ever seen, whether because she was helping Kouga or at the affectionate '–kun', she didn't know. Too bad there wasn't time to enjoy it.

"What? Where? I don't see anything."

"Behind you!"

Kouga turned just in time for the demon to clamp its jaws on his right arm and take off. The other Yourouzoku called out in horror as Kouga swiveled and kicked the demon's teeth in, freeing himself but tearing his arm wide open in the process. Kouga dropped like a rock and hit the ground hard, leaving a small crater in the process.

"Stay back!" he shouted as Kagome and the wolf demons rushed toward him. Kouga levered himself to his knees, "He's coming back, and I'm his only target!"

A shadow fell over Kouga and he looked back to see Inuyasha standing over him, facing the bird. "What the?"

"Shut up and watch, wimpy wolf." Kagome had rarely heard Inuyasha's voice so menacingly serious. Kouga's eyes went wide as Inuyasha unleashed the kaze no kizu, Tessaiga's power cutting the bird to pieces. Kagome ran to Kouga and pulled him into her lap to help prop him up.

"Kouga-kun!" Kagome exclaimed as the wolf-demon pulled out of her embrace and staggered to his feet. Those two numbskulls were still going to try killing each other? Idiots! They had a combined intellect rivaled only by garden tools.

"Inuyasha, Osuwari!"

The hanyou ate dirt, and Kouga sank back to the ground, barely conscious.

"Get him out of here!" she called to Ginta and Hakkaku. They nodded and the wolf demons grabbed their protesting leader and started to run off.

Kagome paused and looked after them before climbing into the crater where the bird had perished, finding and purifying the shards before putting them into her small glass jar, which Sango had helpfully brought.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Inuyasha demanded an explanation why she helped the Yourozoku, and didn't seem to like her answers. His consequent sulk made her feel slightly guilty... until she tried to thank him, and he blew up at her before demanding to know what she had done with Kouga.

Kagome in turn blew up at him, and things went downhill from there.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Let's go, Kirara," Kagome muttered angrily, jumping on the cat-demon's back and zoning out as she took to the sky. It had been some time since she'd been home, and was overdue for a trip. She rubbed Kirara's ears absently, and felt a purr rumble through the demon's feline body.

Kagome was happy to be finally going home at last. This had been one of the most insane series of events that had ever happened to her, which was especially impressive considering how her life had been one chaotic mess after another since Centipede Jourou had emerged from the well and dragged her five hundred years into the past, into the Sengoku Jidai.

Lost in her memories and petting Kirara, Kagome paid no attention to the direction they were heading.

End

Next chapter: Things diverge from canon. A lot. (Yay, Kirara!)

I assume everyone knows youkai/hanyou/kitsune/osuwari/kazaana, etc. But for those who don't know:

Yourouzoku: lit. demon-wolf-people

Gokurakuchou: birds of paradise

Tadaima: What someone says when they return home


	5. Of Exposition

Divided Loyalty, Divided Love  
By c2t2  
Part: 5/(?)  
Disclaimer: Inuyasha aint mine and I make no money from it

Last time:  
_Lost in her memories and petting Kirara, Kagome paid no attention to the direction they were heading. _

Chapter five: Of Exposition

Kirara landed in front of a waterfall and Kagome slid off. "Where are we?" she asked, confused, "I thought you were going to take me back to the well!"

Kirara slurped her rough tongue over the side of Kagome's face before turning tails and launching herself back into the sky. "Hey wait! Kirara! ...aw, shoot," Kagome groaned as she tried to figure out where she was and find a way out of this new predicament.

She didn't have to wait long.

"Sister Kagome!" came a familiar voice from the rock outcropping over her head. "Welcome back, Nee-san!"

"Oh hey Hakkaku." _So I guess I'm back at the wolf den,_ she thought to herself. _Oh, of course! I said 'take me back, Kirara'; not 'take me home'. Kagome no baka!_she silently cursed herself.

Or maybe Kirara hadn't made a mistake. Just how intelligent was the demon cat, anyway? She seemed to have a perfect understanding of human speech, but it was hard to take her too seriously with her playful kitten-form. And how seriously could you take a cat named 'bling-bling'?

Aloud she said, "How's Kouga doing?"

"He'll live, but did you want to take a look at him? You might be able to help, being a priestess and all."

_Might as well…_

After a moment Kagome nodded and climbed up the ridge, Hakkaku giving her a hand up the last few feet. She hesitated a moment before walking behind the waterfall and into the caves. She saw Ginta almost immediately on the far side of the main cavern, and he waved her over.

"Wow Nee-san, I didn't expect you to come back with us. That's great!" he beamed.

"I'm not..." not knowing how to sort out the misunderstanding, Kagome sighed before she knelt next to Kouga. His right arm was virtually shredded, and the fall had probably done some damage to the rest of him.

Kagome cringed involuntarily when she looked closely at Kouga's right arm. From elbow to wrist it had been torn open straight to the bone where the Gokurakuchou king's teeth had closed on his flesh. For a moment she just stared, having no idea where to even begin without her backpack and bandages. _I could use the jewel!_ Kagome hurriedly drew the glass jar from around her neck. She pulled out the two shards she had retrieved from the battlefield, placing one back in the open wound where it had been torn out. Nothing happened, and Kagome almost panicked. Her thoughts raced and, with only a vague notion of what she was actually doing, she instinctively put her hands over it and _prayed_, willing it to heal. There was a sudden rush of warmth, and a blue light limned her body, spreading to surround Kouga as well. Her hair floated as if weightless, and she could hear every demon in the room murmuring apprehensively. The only sensation to reach Kagome was the strangely-distant gasps of amazement when Kouga's wound closed over the shard. In moments, the flesh had returned to its previous unmarred bronze, causing her to sigh in relief.

Kagome examined the second shard - the one that had come from the Gokurakuchou - for a moment. Inuyasha had dealt the final blow to the previous owner, but was this one really hers to keep? Kouga had led them to it, had fought the creature, killed half of it, and had suffered from the influence of this particular shard far beyond any of her group. No, she figured, this shard also belonged to the Yourouzoku.

...Inuyasha was going to be _pissed_.

She shrugged and pressed it into Kouga's left arm, where it absorbed into the flesh and vanished to all but Kagome's eyes.

Wait a minute... what had she just _done_? Kagome had only destroyed demons before, never healed anyone. She sat back on her heels, bemused. It was lucky she hadn't accidentally purified him.

Well, now the only thing she could do was wait for Kouga to wake up.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

With nothing better to do, Kagome walked across the cavern to Ginta and Hakkaku, who had just gotten back from guard duty, and easily drew them into conversation. The topic quickly turned to none other than their leader, Kouga.

"He has this... Thing, see. He's always right. He always knows what the smartest thing to do is."

"I have trouble believing he's that smart."

"He's not! He's-" Hakkaku cut himself off and glanced at Kouga's still form, giving a cautious sniff in that direction before starting more quietly, "Actually, the Thing has made him immensely stupid. He never has to think about anything because he always knows the right thing to do. He never understands why."

"So how does he know?"

He shrugged "Kouga isn't pure Yourouzoku. Who knows what kind of crazy is tied up in there?"

Ginta butted in, "His father was one of the strongest Yourouzoku to ever exist, but he wasn't interested in being our king. Anyway, he just brought Kouga back one day – you know how it is with daiyoukai, 'I need a mate who's my equal, and MY crossbreed won't go bad!'"

"Shut up, I'm the one telling Nee-san! Anyway, Kouga knows things... Like, we always take the shortest trail up the mountain, but last month Kouga decides to take the long way around after we'd spent a week away from the tribe and were almost dead on our feet. We went along with it because, well, he's Kouga, and halfway there we hear the mountain roaring and our usual path was crushed under a landslide! The hill was unstable and we'd had heavy rain, but Kouga never thought of that. He just knew that we should go the other way. A week before the Gokurakuchou showed up he also said we should leave. The problem was, we really had nowhere to go, and he didn't know where to go, he just knew we should leave, and look what happened when we didn't!" Ginta elbowed him but Hakkaku brushed him off. "Yeah, yeah, well he decided that you being his woman is the best thing for him, and for the rest of us, including you.

Hakkaku was silenced by the crack of a fist across his skull. "Why are the two of you sitting here gossiping like old biddies?" Kouga growled, "Take the others and go hunt something to eat tonight."

Ginta hesitated to leave them, but a swift kick in the rear, too fast to be seen, launched him through the waterfall and into the departing group of hunters. Watching him pick himself off the dazed warriors, Kagome wondered if Kouga had aimed his kick for them, and mentally wished them luck. With the Gokurakuchou gone, the wolves soon caught the scent of boar, and the chase was on.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Now that she had nothing urgent to do, Kagome turned her eyes to his face and stared at Kouga as he barked orders at the Yourouzoku that had been left behind.

'The Son of the Yourouzoku,' he had called himself; leader of the demon wolves. Now that she wasn't terrified of being eaten or killed, she could see that he was truly handsome. Bronze skin, coal-black hair, and eyes that seemed too blue to be real...

Eyes?

"Kouga!" the fact that he had regained consciousness finally registered.

He turned back to her and grinned, "Kagome, either I'm dreaming or you've decided to come back and be my woman."

She blushed and stumbled back, babbling. "What? Oh no. NO! Nonono that's not it at all."

He let out a disappointed sigh, "Oh what brought you back then?"

"Um, it was actually a total accident." _I think._ "Kirara misunderstood me when I said 'take me back...' I meant back _home_."

"Oh," his face fell, "So I don't even get a chance, then?" He looked crushed. _Come on, stupid, you just _met_ me! _

"I already told you, I'm taken!" _Stop talking, Kagome_.

Of course, her mouth kept babbling, "-and for one thing, even if I _did_agree, the first thing you'd do is run off and tell Inuyasha."

He smirked, "Well, that's not the FIRST thing I'd do."

Kagome felt her cheeks heat. _He doesn't hold back does he? Well, this is the guy who literally shouted his love from the mountaintops_ - she could feel herself blush even harder - _not the type to hold back at _all_, it seems_.

"Does that mean you'd consider it?"

_Ah, crud_.

_Kagome, you talk too much_. "No," _okay, stop talking!_"I'm just saying that you don't see me as a person at all. If I would be your woman you would think you owned me!"

"Er, yeah?" Kouga actually seemed confused.

All Kagome could do was stare. Was this guy for real? "You're an even bigger jerk than I thought to just say it out loud like that!"

"Wha?" now he looked utterly baffled.

"Who would want a relationship like that?"

"...Who wouldn't?" Now Kagome was confused, until he continued, "I thought humans only take one mate. So do wolves. It's _dogs_that don't."

So _that's_ what he was thinking. "No no. what if it was _you_being owned?"

Kouga looked even more confused for a moment, until slow understanding spread over his face. "Oh... I get it."

"You see? You wouldn't-"

"Kagome, you've got it all wrong." She had a sudden flashback to Inuyasha saying exactly that, right before he almost _kissed_her. She couldn't let herself get distracted though...

"...What?" was the only thing she could think to say. _Brilliant, Kagome_.

Kouga laughed. "Kagome, the ownership goes both ways. You will own me as much as I own you!"

"Relationships should be about _love_, not ownership."

"Didn't I already say I'm in love with you?"

She was again shocked at his bluntness. He could just say things like that? No uncertainty? No insecurity?

"You say that, but you obviously don't. If you really loved me, you would care about the way I felt. First of all, I'm certainly not in love with you, and secondly, if you care about me, you wouldn't want to make my life miserable, and believe me, telling Inuyasha would accomplish exactly that. You've just proven that it's about _Inuyasha_, not me. You're just doing it to annoy him."

Kouga's mouth opened and closed, and Kagome was sure she'd finally gotten through to him, but then he stood up from the straw and raked his claws through his hair in frustration before glancing around at the rest of the pack, who were listening in rapt attention. "Let's go somewhere else." Without waiting for her reply he had swept her into his arms and bounded through the waterfall at breathtaking speed, turning his back to the falls at the last moment. He was moving so quickly that she stayed dry, and in a few dizzying moments they were far away. He placed her back on her feet in a beautiful mountain meadow, holding her steady until she found her balance.

"Jeez, _warn_me before you do that."

"We can talk here, away from my pack."

"Um, yeah." What had they been talking about again?

"You think I'm only after you to annoy Inukkoro?"

"_Inuyasha_, yes. If you cared at all about me you wouldn't be so eager to tell him if I would agree to become 'your woman'."

Kouga gave a gusty sigh, "And here we find one of the reasons humans and youkai don't mix. Kagome, we're not like humans."

"What?"

"You got it all wrong _again_."

She'd been hearing that a lot lately, "How so?"

"It's got nothing to do with your mutt. The first thing any couple does when they decide to get together is run off all potential rivals. That part goes both ways too."

Kagome thought for a moment, "Really? It seems like a technicality to me. I'm not seeing any youkai women around that I would have to 'run off'."

Kouga looked away, a scowl marring his features, "That's because the Gokurakuchou finished them off for you. If I'd managed to protect any of them, then you _would_have had to go bragging."

_Oh_. That had been really insensitive of her. _You should think before you speak! _But why were they talking like she was actually considering this? Somehow the conversation had gotten completely out of hand. She decided to change the subject.

"You said 'one' of the reasons humans and youkai don't mix."

His expression became guarded. "Um, I did?"

"What are the others?" After a moment of no answer, she repeated the question, this time it was she who was on guard, "What are the others, Kouga?" A horrible suspicion began to rise.

He looked away, "Well, mostly hanyou..." Kagome felt her temper immediately snap, her anger at everything Inuyasha had to put up with finally boiling over.

"Okay, that does it! I can't believe how _horrible_ all of you are! For once I thought I had found somebody different, since you only insulted his _dog_ heritage, instead of his being a hanyou, but you're just as bad as everybody else!" now she was really getting riled up. "You listen to me, Kouga, because I am only going to say this once: There is nothing, _nothing_, wrong with hanyou. They are every bit as good as you or me, and I am sick and tired of everyone, human or youkai, abusing Inuyasha just because his blood isn't 'pure', whatever the heck that's supposed to mean!" she was screaming by the time she finished.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Kagome realized she felt a lot better. That had been building up for a while. But for the love of heaven, even _Shippo_ had immediately declared Inuyasha's inferiority upon meeting him. She had really, _really_hoped she finally found someone who didn't judge based solely on bloodline...

Kouga continued to stare at her in shock. He also looked like he really wanted to say something, but didn't want to set her off again. Kagome slowly became wary.

"There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

"Um… I didn't think it was possible that anyone - human _or_youkai - wouldn't know certain things, especially a miko!"

"Yeah? Well, I'm not a normal miko." Kagome determinedly stamped down her irritation and waited for him to continue.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kouga did not like the way she was glaring at him.

_It's not what you think, Kagome_...

But she just kept _staring_ at him. "_Shit_Kagome, I don't..."

_I don't want to be the one telling her this_.

Kagome sighed and appeared to change tactics. "Explain the other reasons why humans and youkai can't coexist. Pretend I just dropped in from a completely different world. A world without youkai."

_Well that would explain a lot_.

If all the women in her hypothetical world wore such revealing clothing, his pack would probably defect _en masse_, what awesome luck that he'd already found the best woman of them all...

Right, explaining about youkai. Where to start? "Well, have you ever seen a human-looking youkai turn into their full demon form?"

"Yes."

_What... seriously? And she survived? Well that's my woman for you!_"Well, the youkai loses control whenever they get a large jump in power, like transforming. If they get something like a jewel shard, then they lose control and... change."

Kagome looked thoughtful, "Most of the demons we found who had jewel shards were warped and monstrous... actually, the only ones who weren't were you and Yura of the Hair. But she was only a puppet... and not actually using the power of her shard. Why?"

"The demons who appear human are the most powerful. And even a good number of them would be corrupted by a jewel shard. The shards are that overwhelming."

"Many of the strongest demons would be corrupted… But not you?"

"I'm... not your average demon." _Let's not get into that right now_. "Anyway, the youkai who lose control of their demonic nature will fight and kill indiscriminately - or occasionally act out other impulses - until the youkai's mind regains control. Sometimes he is killed before he does, since the demon has no mind directing the body, and so for a while, he cannot feel fear, pain, or much of anything, really."

"Oh, okay, but..."

"Let me finish." Kagome's expression showed a brief flash of annoyance at being interrupted, but for now she seemed willing to comply. "I told you that massive jumps in power reach the demon's instinct first, and takes control. If the youkai is with his own kind, they can hold him back until he regains control. If there are humans around, they don't stand a chance."

For some reason Kagome looked incredibly guilty, "So the broken Shikon jewel means rampaging demons will kill a lot of people."

"Well, it's better than the whole thing being out there. I imagine any demon – no matter how strong - who absorbed the entire jewel would transform into a monster, and I don't know if the youkai would be able to..." he made a vague hand gesture.

Kagome didn't seem satisfied. "Why does that mean humans and demons shouldn't associate in general, though? I mean, just always mingle in groups! Then there would always be a few other youkai around. If it became common knowledge among humans-"

"They would hunt us even more than they already do," Kouga finished. _Although it's mostly for the other reason_...

"... Oh... and if they knew youkai can lose control and go on killing sprees, anyone with youkai blood will be seen as a loose cannon." She looked like she was finally starting to understand.

_A loose what? Eh, whatever_. "Well, that's not the only reason. But it's one of the main ones." _Whoops, shouldn't have said that. Now she'll ask…_

"What are the others?"

_Shit_. "Um, mostly the one I said earlier... You know, the one about humans being so different from us."

"You mean the one about _hanyou_," her voice turned icy at the term. Kouga knew she was thinking about the dog-turd again. Jeez, she sure was grumpy a lot when it came to him.

Kagome, suffering another seemingly random mood swing, snapped out of her sulk and went straight to curious. _Females must be universally confusing_.

"Wait, you said that a demon who absorbed the complete jewel couldn't regain control. But the demon never takes over permanently or anything... right?"

Kouga chose his next words carefully, "It's basically impossible. Like I said, the mind catches up. A corrupted shard would take a lot longer to overpower, but it always would be. Eventually."

"So you're saying..."

"You don't have to worry. Demon instincts never take permanent control over a youkai." He tried to sound nonchalant.

_Hanyou, on the other hand, have a tendency to permanently berserk, and even if they're not killed, end up destroying themselves._

But, Kagome, you're not going to hear it from me.

"Come on, the sun is setting."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Next time: an awkward night, and the yourouzoku get visitors from the north!


End file.
